Iran was among the 72 countries awarded for reaching the Millennium Development Goal 1(MDG) on reducing hunger, at the FAO’s 39th Conference which opened in Rome on Saturday.
The FAO’s ‘The State of Food Insecurity in the World (SOFI) 2015’ report shows that 795 million people - just over one in nine - are undernourished globally, down 167 million over the last decade, and 216 million less than in 1990-92.
A total of 72 developing countries out of 129, including the Islamic Republic of Iran, have reached the Millennium Development Goal 1 (MDG) hunger target and 29 countries including Angola, Brazil, and China have reached the World Food Summit (WFS) goal and MDG 1 target.
In December 2014, the FAO awarded Iran for reaching the MDG 1 in reducing the number of undernourished in the country, reports Mehr News Agency from Rome.
Serge Nakouzi, the FAO representative to Tehran, said: “Iran’s outstanding achievement in reaching the MDG 1 indicates the efficacy of national policies and measures implemented in the past 20 years.”
Incumbent FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva was re-elected to a second term with a total of 177 out of 182 votes cast.
Future Plans
Representatives from 194 countries including 130 ministers will discuss the FAO’s future work plan and set a new two-year budget, at the June 6-13 meet, which highlighted lessons from Brazil’s landmark “Zero Hunger” campaign.
Italian President Sergio Mattarella, opening the conference, said the right to food is a core component of the basic right to life. “True peace will never be achieved unless poverty and malnutrition are vanquished.”
He said issues such as climate change, natural resource limits and food and energy insecurity have consequences that cross borders and will require policy makers to adopt a rights-based approach at key summits on development finance, greenhouse-gas emissions and new United Nations goals later this year, reports FAO.org.
President of Chile Michelle Bachelet stressed the need to foster efficient and inclusive food systems while urging governments “to push back against rising calls for protectionism in international commodity markets and to broaden their anti-hunger programs to tackle new nutritional problems such as obesity.”
Reflecting on Latin America’s success in reducing hunger over the past decade, she emphasized the importance of gender equality, saying “women hold the keys to food security,” and the importance of empowering rural women and indigenous communities.
“The role of the state is not just to eradicate hunger but to take up the struggle to tackle inequality in all its forms.”
Zero Hunger
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, former president of Brazil, said lessons were learned from the ground-breaking Zero Hunger program he implemented in 2003 after being elected, which led to a sharp improvement in general welfare of the country, “where fewer than 5% are hungry today, down from 20% when he took office.”
Initially the idea of cash transfers to the poor seemed controversial but it led tens of millions out of a poverty trap -- at the cost of only 0.5% of Brazil’s gross domestic product.
“This is the first generation of Brazilians that hasn’t had to face hunger,” he said, explaining how “income transfer to the poorest ends up being very beneficial to the country as a whole.”
